Fully 80 percent of Americans suffer, off and on, from backaches. So common are they that people often assume that they are inevitable, especially as you get older. But doctors say this is not so. Although old age and congenital defects account for some backaches, most result from muscular weakness due to a sedentary existence and stress. When people tense up under stress, their flabby, unprepared muscles go into spasm. The pain of these spasms may be so agonizing that the individual is sure something in the spine must have slipped or possibly broken, but actually cases in which this occurs only account for about 5 to 10 percent of backache problems. The commonest of back difficulties is low back pain where an acute spasm of one of the powerful muscles running along the lower spine occurs, putting pressure on one or more nerves.
Historically, the creation of many devices has been attempted for the purpose of either strengthening the back or for the mere purpose of administering a good massage. Some inventions were meant to produce only local stimulation of trigger points within the muscles. A few devices have been somewhat successful in performing multiple functions with limited success, but they do not achieve the localized massage capability along with the exercise as does the Combination Exercise-Massage Unit. Often the cost of manufacture of these devices has been prohibitive to widespread use. The combination of exercising the legs while the back is being massaged has multiple benefits that will be disclosed within this application.
Numerous innovations for exercise and massage devices have been provided in the prior art that are described as follows. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they differ from the present design as hereinafter contrasted. The following is a summary of those prior art patents most relevant to this application at hand, as well as a description outlining the difference between the features of the Combination Exercise-Massage Unit and the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,614 of Edward E. Lindquist describes a back massage and exercise device comprising a substantially flat, elongate frame able to be utilized on a supporting surface, with the frame having a pair of long sides joined together by a pair of short sides and being several times as long as it is wide. A roller array in the form of a parallel series of elongate rollers is loosely mounted in a spaced apart, operational relationship between the long sides of the frame. The frame has an operative position in which a lower portion of substantially all of the rollers is in contact with the supporting surface, with an upper portion of the rollers being available for directly supporting the body of a user. The user is able to readily bring about back and forth rolling movement of the frame along the supporting surface at such time as he is lying on the rollers, with the motion of the upper portions of the rollers during such movement of the frame bringing about a massaging action to the portion of the user's body in contact with the rollers. At least one of the rollers is of significantly larger diameter than the other rollers of the array, with the larger diameter roller operatively mounted so as to be contacted by the user's head. Significantly, the larger diameter roller is employable by the user for head, neck and shoulder massage.
This patent describes a back massage and exercise device having a roller array in the form of a parallel series of elongate rollers that are loosely mounted spaced apart between the long sides of the frame. With this device the user is able to readily bring about back and forth rolling movement of the frame along the supporting surface at such time as he is lying on the rollers, with the motion of the upper portions of the rollers during such movement of the frame bringing about a massaging action to the portion of the user's body in contact with the rollers, where the massage rollers of the Combination Exercise-Massage Unit are stationary and have a variety of different replaceable outer sleeves. The person using the Combination Exercise-Massage Unit moves up and down by the means of a continuous belt over the stationary massage rollers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,997 of David M. Vitko describes a small lightweight yet strong frame housing multiple flexible axles which in turn support foam rubber roller balls, which roll about an axis creating: massage, intersegmental traction, trigger point therapy, and active exercise to the back of the user. These axles are made more efficient by the placement of bushings where they are contained by frame. Foam rubber balls contain sleeves which promote free rotation. A sliding head rest is provided for comfort and is also used to facilitate optional concomitant neck and back treatment and multiple tension adjustments are provided for varying resistance to glide.
This patent describes a small lightweight yet strong frame housing multiple flexible axles which in turn support foam rubber roller balls, which roll about an axis creating massage. With this device the person moves their body up and down by the means of an ankle strap. There is no way to adjust the weight required to produce the up and down movement to increase the exercise involved. It uses foam rubber roller balls instead of the unique massage rollers with replaceable outer sleeves.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,052,448 of Roger C. Teeter describes a tilting inversion exerciser that includes a stand, a table rotatably attached to the stand to support a user, and a carrier slidably received in the table. The carrier includes a massage device for massaging the user. The table includes a bolt rotatably received in a chamber and threaded to the carrier, to move the carrier relative to the table. A motor may be coupled to the bolt, to rotate or drive the bolt to move the carrier relative to the table. One or more cranks are rotatably attached to the carrier and each has one or more wheels for engaging with and for massaging the user. The carrier includes a motor for actuating the wheels to massage the user via the crank.
This patent describes a tilting inversion exerciser with a carrier that includes a massage device for massaging the user. The carrier includes a motor for actuating the wheels to massage the user via the crank. Although this device incorporates a means of tipping the person using the device, it does not incorporate the unique massage rollers with replaceable outer sleeves, and requires an electrical connection and the method of tipping is completely different.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,985 of Kao Pin Cheng describes an exercise device that includes a carriage slidably supported on a supporting base for supporting users and having a number of massage members for massaging the users. A moving device may be used to move the carriage relative to the supporting base and thus to move the massage members relative to the users, and to massage the users with the massage members. The moving device includes an eccentric rotary member rotatably attached to the supporting base, and a coupling device coupling the eccentric rotary member to the carriage and to move the carriage relative to the supporting base when the eccentric rotary member is rotated by users.
This patent describes an exercise device that includes a carriage slidably supported on a supporting base for supporting users and having a number of massage members for massaging the users. This device also uses a carriage to move the massage rollers up and down the back of the person using the device. It cannot be conveniently tipped and does not incorporate the unique massage rollers with replaceable outer sleeves.
None of these previous efforts, however, provides the benefits attendant with the Combination Exercise-Massage Unit. The present design achieves its intended purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of method steps and component elements, with the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, and by employing readily available materials.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the Combination Exercise-Massage Unit in detail it is to be understood that the design is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement, of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The Combination Exercise-Massage Unit is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. In addition, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present design. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present application.